How can we manage toward more resilient landscapes? Assessing how riparian areas could help wildlife move through anthropogenic matrices

Landscapes are lessening their ability to support wildlife because of threats from climate change and anthropogenic development. As a result, managers must focus on promoting landscape resilience to maintain all major biotic functional groups. The goal of this research was to explore the potential for riparian areas to serve as a component in landscape-wide management plans to promote resilience. I performed a literature review which discussed the utility of riparian areas by wildlife. I addressed how land use change and climate change could shape how wildlife use riparian areas. I also performed an empirical study of the effects of development intensity and stream channel morphology on mammalian use of riparian areas. I determined that riparian areas are valuable as habitat for wildlife and are important contributors towards landscape resilience. I suggest that management towards landscape resilience requires consideration at both the local habitat patch and broader landscape scales.